Day: July 13, 2023

US Lawmakers Say China Using Coercive Business Practices for Economic Advantage

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Washington —  U.S. lawmakers Thursday charged the Chinese Communist Party is using coercive economic practices to achieve worldwide dominance over the United States. The accusations came at a hearing of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party days after U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen met with Chinese officials in Beijing to discuss the nations’ economic relationship. Yellen said that while the United States was taking targeted national security actions, “a decoupling of the world’s two largest economies would be disastrous for…

Blinken, Wang Yi meet on ASEAN sidelines in Jakarta

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Jakarta and met with Wang Yi, China’s leading diplomat, amid allegations of a Chinese cyberespionage attack targeting U.S. government emails. The conversation between the two top diplomats on the margins of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ Meeting “was part of ongoing efforts to maintain open channels of communication to clarify U.S. interests across a wide range of issues and to responsibly manage competition by reducing the risk of misperception and miscalculation,” said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller. Blinken made…

Solomon Islands denies policing deal with China poses ‘threat’ to Pacific security

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Solomon Islands has said that its policing pact with China poses no “threat” to the Pacific, rebuking western powers that raised fears the deal could inflame regional tensions. Prime minister Manasseh Sogavare inked a raft of deals during a trip to China this week, including an agreement allowing Beijing to extend its police presence in the developing Pacific nation until 2025. The US, Australia and New Zealand have expressed unease about the policing “implementation plan”, urging Beijing to soothe concerns by releasing more details. In response, the Solomon Islands government…

‘As Long as It Takes’: Biden Adds to Talk of a New Cold War

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President Biden and his national security team have contended since he took office that all the easy, tempting comparisons between this era and the Cold War are misleading, a vast oversimplification of a complex geopolitical moment. The differences are, indeed, stark: The United States never had the kind of technological and financial interdependence with its Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union, that so complicates the increasingly bitter and dangerous downward spiral in the relationship with China. And Mr. Biden’s advisers often argue that Russia is not the Soviet Union. Yes,…

White House to Keep Lines to China Open Despite Hack, Elaborates on Putin ‘Loss’

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white house —  The Biden administration is “concerned” about a recent Chinese hack targeting the websites of U.S. federal agencies but will “keep the lines of communication open,” John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, said in an interview Thursday with VOA White House correspondent Paris Huang. Kirby also elaborated on President Joe Biden’s comment Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “lost the war” in Ukraine, and he voiced strong concerns about reports of a mass grave found in volatile Sudan. This interview has been edited for…

Will Hong Kong again be a factor when Taiwan heads to the polls in 2024?

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The DPP’s message was clearly seen in election slogans such as “Vote for KMT, Taiwan becomes Hong Kong”. Beijing has long held up Hong Kong as a model for Taiwan – it sees self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province to be “reunified” under a similar “one country, two systems” framework. For decades mainland Chinese leaders have promised a sceptical Taiwan more autonomy than Hong Kong. Advertisement Han eventually lost the presidential election, and his mayorship. The defeat plunged the KMT into crisis as supporters lost hope in its moderate strategy…

Australia news live: Philip Lowe reportedly to be replaced as RBA governor; Wong meets top Chinese diplomat

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Republicans Assail Kerry Before His Climate Talks With China

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Republicans on Thursday accused John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate, of being soft on China as he prepared to travel to Beijing to restart discussions between the world’s top two polluting countries. In a contentious hearing before a House Committee on Foreign Affairs panel, Republicans attacked Mr. Kerry for not doing enough to persuade China to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, several also sought to portray Mr. Kerry as putting Chinese interests above those of the United States by negotiating with America’s top economic…

Cambodian ruling party spokesman rejects criticism of Theary Seng conviction

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Renewed calls from the U.S. State Department and a U.N. working group for the release of Cambodian-American lawyer Theary Seng are a violation of Cambodia’s sovereignty, the spokesman for the country’s ruling party said on Thursday. “Our court jurisdiction is under the laws of Cambodia as an independent and sovereign state,” said Sok Ey San, spokesman for the Cambodian People’s Party. “The court convicts [any person] based on the laws and the facts. She caused chaos in Cambodia for being a holder of foreign nation’s passport. She stirred chaos in…